Death of a child

Nadim Nuwara, 17, was shot by an Israeli soldier on Nakba day, the annual May 15th day in which Palestinians, still seeking the statehood promised long ago to them by the British, publicly commemorate their expulsion from historic Palestine in 1948 following the Israeli Declaration of Independence.

According to Nadim’s friends, he snuck away after school to join demonstrators at Ofre prison, where numerous Palestinians (including minors) are held in military detention without charge for months and years. In a symbolic act of resistance, Nadim threw rocks at the Israeli occupation forces, only to be met with gunfire. Sixteen year-old Mohammad Abu Al Thayer died alongside Nadim. But security video footage reveals that neither Nadim nor his friends were throwing rocks at the time they were shot.

The photo that did not make the headlines was of the two boys’ friends huddled together, crying for hours in the dark stairwell of their apartment building. They were schoolmates and neighbors. Just hours before, they had been all together at school gossiping about who in class had a crush on Nadim. Tearfully, one of the young girls now sat, explaining that, before she left school that day, she had asked Nadim what he was getting her for her birthday.

In Palestine, deaths of children from political conflict happen regularly. Since 2000, Israeli forces have killed about ten times as many Palestinian children as vice versa. For the peers of the deceased Palestinian children left behind to whimper in stairwells, there seems to be no reprieve. And so Nadim’s friends continue to cry.

Palestine is 46% children, all under 18. Life has no manual, user’s guide or reset button. These children don’t even have a country. They only have each other, and their defeated, disillusioned parents — a time hard for any of them to forget.

Nakba is the commemoration of the “catastrophe” time when 700,000 Palestinians fled from their homes in what is became Israel, from towns that were depopulated and destroyed by Israeli forces. These refugees and their descendants now number several million, living in refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The shot to Nadim’s chest was a reminder of the seemingly impossible odds against the Palestinians in their quest for the right of return. A few children stood at the stairwell window and threw water balloons out onto random passing cars. Balloons are symbolic of a carefree childhood. But for these children, childhood is now infused with pain, confusion and the loss of innocence. Was it a tribute, in honor of their Nadim, that the friends packed rocks into these balloons?

Over a third of Palestinians are students in primary, secondary, or higher education. Overall literacy rate is 91.1%. And among Palestinians of 15-24, the literacy rate is 98.2%. These are kids wanting a better future for their family and friends. Just as they see life enjoyed by so many of their peers around world — children with a nation to call their own.

The stairwell in this Ramallah apartment building is an important space for socializing among the Christian and Muslim children of the neighborhood. It is where they gather when it’s too cold or dark to go outside and play. The stairwell is where they marvel at the latest special treats from the corner store — most recently cotton candy that dissolves into chewing gum. Many of the children study there, while the younger ones pretend to be WWF wrestlers that they see on TV. Last October, the children posted flyers in the stairwell explaining Halloween, an unfamiliar holiday here, which they learned about through the Internet. Their hand-drawn flyers on every stair level asked the adults in the building to please be ready with candy for costumed, trick-or-treat visits.

The children giggle without fail every time the hall light goes off due to the timer for energy conservation. On Nakba day, the day of Nadim’s death, no one raced to punch the light switch back on. They sat quietly crying in the dark.

Heidi Morrison

Assistant professor of history at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse

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Heidi Morrison is an assistant professor of history at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse. Her latest book is the Global History of Childhood Reader.